[compost_tea] Re: CTTF Report - Tests

From: Steve Diver <steved_at_ncat.org>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 22:35:54 -0000
Ted & Kirk -

The NOP is a federal law. The practices described amount
to regulatory language.  To establish regulations for
teas and how they do or do not influence pathogens, regulations
are based on science.  This means data published in journals,
laboratory data written into reports to complete a project,
or conference data based on similar sources. 

The data that was available showed that tea additives
grow microbes, which is what the whole compost
industry has said all along.  

Yet, the data also showed that compost tea brewing can
also grow pathogens.  One study was pretty darn close to
what a newbie might brew based on available equipment and
simple instructions with no further training. 

Keep in mind that some of you folks are way out
on the frontiers of soil foodweb agriculture. Your
skills are advanced. You have the best brewers
and you also have DO meters at $400 a pop.  You've
attended SFI seminars and you have a handle on
soil biology and microbes.

KEEP IN MIND, folks, that Joe Farmer who has not been
schooled in SFI workshops or knows the first thing about
CT on Yahoo!Groups discussion relating to best management
practices for compost teas....  will also be brewing teas.

The CTTF laid out the situation, and proposed
recommendations that allow compost teas to continue
under NOP.

There is no restriction on compost teas made without
additives.

Compost teas made with additives require testing to
show the compost substrate and brewing parameters are
of sufficient quality to apply to food crops, without
restriction.

The CTTF was a collection of very knowledgeble people in
composts and compost teas. 

It was introduced to the optimum oxygen and molasses
concentrations for ACTs based on Elaine Ingham's work.
Yet, discussion of these parameters as authoritative
conditions for ACTs were not sufficient because there
is no  published data that elucidates these parameters. 

Ted, you are sharing some of the most dynamic information
on the CT list on Yahoo!Groups.  The CTTF recognized that
compost tea practitioners are way ahead of science in
how fast this technology has developed in both brewing
procedures as well as the many different uses of compost
teas being employed.

It will simply take more time for researchers to catch
up to the practitioners and thoroughly verify all the
brewing parameters, microbial antagonism, and other
factors that result in safe use of compost teas.

If you look at it from this angle, doors of opportunity
are opening up for compost tea practitioners and
equipment suppliers to conduct on-farm research, municipal
research, laboratory research and so forth.... in collaboration
with local universities, farmers, and municipalities.

Steve Diver


--- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, "Ted Peterson" <ted.peterson@t...>
wrote:
> You know guys.  We could be in a situation where ANY additive other
than water and air are viewed as an input that so changes that end
product that Compost Tea is no longer being produced.  We are
multiplying biology.  If we have X aerobic bacteria and Y anerobic
bacteria, applying any food feeds both.  No consideration is given for
O2 which limits anaerobes.  Maybe we could get certification if we
only used compost with no additives.  As I said mentioned after
reading the report, milasses is one of the additives that's OK for
comost.  No mention was made of simple compost with no inputs and no
testng was done without inputs.
>
> Maybe all the additivies are freaking them out because the end
result is uncontrolled.
>
> Ted Peterson
> EW/SOE



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Received on Tue Apr 27 2004 - 19:41:01 EDT

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